The MMORPG Lost Ark has recently experienced strong growth again and the recent changes have been well received. A new roadmap now shows how things will progress in the coming months, and it does one thing very well, but three things not at all.
What does the roadmap show? The new roadmap for Lost Ark was released on the evening of April 25th and outlines how the game will proceed until the end of August. It also makes it clear that a third roadmap will follow later this year. Until now, most players assumed that the new roadmap would show the rest of the year.
However, the entire roadmap does not go into detail about each month, but provides an overview of what the next major patches will bring. These include new raids, new classes, and more story.
Amazon, however, makes it clear in the preface that they are only giving us the highlights here and that each patch will bring even more. The focus is especially on quality of life, events, and balance adjustments. The latter has been rather rare so far.
What to expect in the coming months
To give you a clear overview of the upcoming content, we will break it down by month in this text section.
May
What’s coming in May? With the May update, the next new class will be introduced to the game. Contrary to what would be chronologically correct, it will be the Slayer and not the Aeromancer. The Slayer is the female variant of the Berserker. She is armed with a great sword and hits her enemies with full force.
The Slayer will also be accompanied by a “Progression Event” that will help you quickly get your very own Slayer into the endgame.
In Korea, the Slayer is currently one of the best damage classes (via discord), and especially her specialization build far outshines many other classes. Therefore, at least the players in Korea are expecting a nerf soon, meaning a downgrade of the class. Whether this will happen before she arrives here is still unknown.
In addition to the new class, the new “Ebony Cube” will also launch in May. This new activity will replace and combine the known boss frenzy and the cube. This will make collecting tickets easier and also bring more materials than before.
Furthermore, Amazon wants to work on the knowledge transfer system. You should be able to use it more easily, faster, and with fewer resets in the future. In general, the system allows you, once you have researched it on your island, to push new characters through the story for gold and bring them directly to level 50.
Amazon also mentions that they want to adjust the rewards for endgame raids in May, but they haven’t gone into detail yet.
The last new class was the Artist:
June
What’s coming in June? With the June update, Lost Ark will continue the main story of the game. The next continent, Elgacia, is supposed to be released. To remain spoiler-free, we won’t go into detail here, but it will be very heavenly and also much more relevant to the story of Arkesia than Rowen was, for example.
To reach Elgacia and play the story there, you need an item level of 1,460. The new Abyssal Dungeon “Kayangel,” which will also come with Elgacia, is much higher. Players can expect a new four-player raid and the ability to upgrade their set bonus to level 3.
For those who still find this not challenging enough, the floors 26 to 50 of the new “Fortunespire” tower are waiting in June. Here, your patience and skill as a solo player will be tested and, if successful, richly rewarded. Also, 3 new skill points await in the upcoming floors.
July
What’s coming in July? July will be a rather quieter month, at least based on what is currently known. The update is supposed to conclude or expand the story in Elgacia with an epilogue. Aside from that, new collectible items called “Memory Orbs” will also be introduced, which can provide fans of horizontal progression with many hours of enjoyment.
On the side, the hardcore PvE community will be served with the update, as the “Inferno” mode for the Kakul-Saydon raid will also arrive in Arkesia in July. As with the other Inferno modes, this is not about loot but solely about prestige and titles. Anyone wanting to tackle the extremely difficult “Inferno Clowns” can do so starting in July and with a gear score of 1,475.
If you want to see what it’s like, you can do so here:
August
What’s coming in August? The August update will once again focus fully on endgame players. With the Akkan raid, which will be available in “Normal” with a gear score of 1,580 and “Hard” for gear score 1,600, players can expect the next “soft reset”.
This means that you will receive new armor from Akkan and can only transfer your old one partially, as usual. You will also receive better upgrade chances and a new maximum gear score.
As part of the new raid boss, there will also be a new Guardian Raid, Sonavel. He is for gear score 1,580 and will mechanically be based on the previously known raid Levanos. Keen eyes will already recognize this from the name.
In addition to Akkan, another highlight awaits you in August, namely the new class of Aeromancer. This is the second specialist in the game, besides the Artist. She will fight with an umbrella and relies on weather magic.
Just like the Slayer, the Aeromancer will also have her own “Progression Event” so you can quickly catch up with your new main character.
You can see gameplay of the Aeromancer here:
What is great about the roadmap and what is actually bad?
What’s good about the roadmap? Particularly good is the early release of the Slayer. With this, Amazon does Lost Ark players a big favor that they surely did not see coming. The class was only released in Korea just about 4 months before the release here, in January. Such a fast pace on implementing content is commendable and good.
Moreover, it is a great advantage that the Slayer is accompanied by its own progression event. And this, even though the last one hasn’t even expired by then. This is something that really didn’t have to be, but it shows that Amazon is very responsive to the wishes of the players.
Similarly, the changes to the cube and boss frenzy should perfectly address the fans’ concerns. A major criticism from them is that many activities take too long. The Ebony Cube now offers less grind in a shorter time, with more loot.
The May update will also help new players catch up faster and especially reduces much grind from the leveling phase. Here, even small things help, like free healing potions in early guardian raids. Therefore, May is definitely the highlight of the roadmap – and unfortunately, also the only one.
What’s bad about the plan? Simply put, the remaining 3 updates. They all have their own problems and together pose a major issue. The June update brings new story content, but with Kayangel, it also brings the next important part of endgame progression.
Yet this was only properly set in motion in the April update, just two months prior, through Brelshaza in hard mode. Being ready in June with Brelshaza for players to have gathered their sets, in order to improve them in Kayangel, is quite ambitious even for hardcore players and puts pressure on them.
July is then relatively calm, which leads to the next problem. Because in August, the new raid Akkan and the Aeromancer will be released together. A decision that is already causing a stir in the community (via reddit). There are voices asking, rightly, why the Aeromancer couldn’t be moved to the relatively empty July, so that, in case of doubt, they could have her ready for Akkan as well.
This is particularly problematic because Amazon wanted to make the same mistake with the Artist and Brelshaza. However, they intervened and brought the new class a month before the new raid. We can only hope that it will be July again this time, and not the already overloaded August.
The third problem is admittedly not necessarily a problem. Community voices are divided on this, but our author Mark Sellner sees it as a concern. Because bringing Akkan in August, just 4 months after the last new endgame gear, seems too early for many (via reddit).
Even if you stay really engaged and play daily, it seems highly ambitious to achieve Akkan hard with more than one character by August. Furthermore, he takes the spotlight from Kayangel, which is released in June. Players have only two months to warm up with Kayangel, upgrade their set, and improve their character before the next raid is already at the door.
What do you think? Are you excited about Lost Ark’s new roadmap? Do you feel that the progression is too fast, or do you think that Akkan is placed just right? Do you feel pressured by the roadmap as an active player? Feel free to let us know in the comments here at MeinMMO.
